Saturday, December 28, 2013

My last blog was about an Eagle unsuccessfully ambushing an Osprey for a fish.

http://birdmandea.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-enemies-enemy.html

This blog is a closer look at those two birds and their families.

Remember these two? They are the resident breeding pair I have been writing about for a few years now.

In the past seven years they have raised fourteen offspring. Each year has been getting harder. Seven years ago a pair of osprey built the first nest on a train bridge I have watching since 1975. The distance between them surprising close. 570 yards. (Measured with an app on a tablet device). I could only make out two offspring, do not know if they fledged.

Six years ago I witnessed the eagle pair and the osprey pair engaged in battle just feet above the water. For the next three weeks the male osprey flew up and down the length of his territory carrying branches and fresh fish while screaming endlessly. Looking for his mate? I never saw her again. Late in the summer the male found a new mate, they sat on the bridge, collected sticks but didn't have any young.

Five years ago a pair nested on the bridge while 2.5 miles inland a pair of osprey nested on a cell tower behind a local KFC.

Four years ago both of the above as well as a third pair with a new nest on pilings of an old pier one mile up the coast.

And for each of the past three years a fourth pair of osprey built a nest on the train bridge just yards from the first nest. In the past three years alone in this 2.5 mile arc six bald eagle chicks and anywhere from four to sixteen osprey chicks. The mortality rate of both bird species are high the the first few years but playing the odds the osprey are winning. If winning is an appropriate term.

In July of this year I was watching the eaglet pair exercise their wings and take short flights from tree to tree. The male sat high on his overlook as the female flew North up the canyon. The male let out an occasional scream as the two young eagles both made their way back to the nest.

Time passes differently when watching animals. I scanned and fiddled with camera settings and scanned some more. I looked up and the male eagle was gone. I heard screaming but it wasn't and eagle....rabbit?If you have ever heard a rabbit scream you know what I am saying. A rabbit screaming up in the air? Yep. The fastest rabbit in Western Washington.

The female circled in front of the nest five times calling to the eaglets to follow. The rabbit was running at full speed and screaming its lungs out. The female took the rabbit and flew back up the canon calling back to the young. Neither made a move.

I lifted my glasses and stuck my face to the back of the camera to look at the pictures of the eagle and rabbit.

Seconds in to my drooling over my pictures I heard a panicked screaming of the male eagle. As I looked up a female osprey was hot on his tail both coming from the direction of the two nests on the train bridge. The eagle was flying flat out when the osprey hit it the first time. The eagle tumbled head first. This was where I thought to my self, self USE THE BIG ASS CAMERA YOU HAVE BEEN CARRYING EVERYWHERE !

The camera is shooting eight frames per second. The male eagle's wing span is about six feet or a little more.

This is the first pass photographed. I missed the first two.

Here is the start of the next sortie.

The eagle was screaming and panicked. Twisting and turning violently. If I were watching two people arguing in the say way I would say the eagle was pleading for mercy and trying everything possible of get the hell out of this situation but doing what it needed to do to fend off the talons.

I thought the eagle was going to catch a break here he might have too when she pulled up so high. That ended pretty quick when the osprey turned.

Four frames. One eagle wing beat. One half second.

I would conservatively say the osprey was traveling 50MPH+. Possible faster if we could calculate the curved angle as it looks as if the osprey is traveling from us toward the eagle. 60+? 70+?

These attacks were relentless. The eagle made a run for his high perch. The osprey dropped out of site on the far side of the ridge.

But it wasn't over.

Full speed full attack! Look at those talons!

This pass unseated the eagle and he fell from the tree. The instant he got back up...

She was there.

This time both fell back over the ridge line and were gone. If the fight continued I don't know. Both did survive and have been seen many time since in good shape.

What ever the eagle did over the ridge it was something the osprey was sure to point out was not going to be happening again anytime

Watching wildlife is great but most of the time it's pretty static. Here in a hand full of pictures covering several heartbeats life and death struggles play out so fast if you blinked you may have missed it.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

This morning we had a typical Southern Puget Sound "fog rise". Cold clear nights under a high pressure front leading to thick fog in the mornings. It was 8 AM, light enough to see but too gray to see colors as I stepped outside to let my ducks out of their hut. Two Steller's Jays were screaming from the Filbert tree over the hut. This happens nearly every morning. I had figured it was a local Barred Owl or Cooper's Hawk roosting in Cedars behind the a Filbert tree.

As I peered over the gate into the duck's yard my eyes locked on a visitor's eyes.

The Jays were harassing him/her from the cover of the Filbert but it was too dark to see them. I quietly pulled back from the gate and rushed into the house to grab the camera.

S/he was still there when I got back!

The camera was on a preset I had programmed just for this situation. Through my big lens these pictures were taken at 1/15 of a second with the ISO pushed up to 3200. If you don't know what that means that's OK. It was dark. Many of the pictures I took were blurred and deleted.

So after bracing the camera on the fence for the good stills I got I took a chance with a flash.

Cool. Still there. One more.

Three more jays arrived and the owl was surrounded. At the trunk of the tree to the left of the owl's head is a jay in the shadows.

Blur away.

S/he moved deep into the cover of the cedars. They jays kept up their harassment well past 10am before moving on.